I received a notice in late April that my subscription to ConsumerReports.org would be renewed because I had a "convenient Auto-Renew" subscription.
My subscription was to expire on May 13th. I hardly used the site during the year I had the subscription so I went to the site to find out how to disable the auto-renewal feature. I am very computer literate, even having developed some Internet technology about 5 years ago. However, it took me about an hour of poking around on their site to find the carefully hidden information that I needed: There's no way to disable auto-renew, and you have to login two days (recommended) before the renewal to cancel the subscription.
I created a reminder in my PIM and dutifully logged in on the 11th of May, and cancelled. I soon received a notification by email:
My wife told me that they charged our account anyway. So I went to the website to find the phone number to call to get this taken care of. There wasn't one listed on any of the pages that they wasted my time digging through. So I opted to send an Email. Based on their prior pattern of (mis-) behavior, I was confident that instead of popping up a window from my Email client using a "mailto: " hyperlink, they would instead provide a form in my web browser so that I would have no proof of the communication in my Email program. My expectations were realized. But... Suprise, there was the phone number on the form. Good job of concealment there! Why bother a human representative when we can just make our victims go away, and keep their money - right?
I am now told that the amount will be credited back to my card. But I think that law enforcment needs to investigate this organization to see whether there's a pattern of fraud. While they're at it, maybe they should look into the exectuive compensation at this non-profit organization. I doubt that I am the only victim. There are likely many who really didn't notice the extra $26.00 (or so) charge on their accounts. And of those who did, many probably just went away in frustration after not being able to find out how to get their money back, and actually cancel their "convenient auto-renew subscription". By the way, when I declined my renewal, I was offered the subscription for about $10.00 less. So the organizations claims about helping consumers get the best deals are discredited by their own tactics.
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